Why isn't there a global body to monitor drought?

Drought is arguably the biggest single threat from climate change, reports the Guardian. Its impacts are global. Some say drought triggered the crisis in Syria, and poor drought forecasting caused innumerable deaths in the Horn of Africa during 2011 and 2012. Yet calls to head off future disasters by establishing a UN body to provide a global drought early warning system, first made almost a decade ago, remain unfulfilled.

Nobody is accepting responsibility for setting up a global body, and nobody is putting up the necessary funding, say experts in the field. The UN Convention to Combat Desertification, which meets in Ankara next month, “would be a natural ally,” says Pozzi. “But their main focus is on policy.”